The charming VJ Utt represented MTV Asia, which is the search's co-organizer.

redAMP is an ASEAN-wide regional online band competition searching the region's best indie and garage bands. It is organized by AirAsiaRedTix. com, Air Asia's new entertainment events online ticketing subsidiary.

A group of press and media people from various countries were invited to Bali, Indonesia, where the announcement of the Top 10 ASEAN Bands was made.

PEP (Philippine Entertainment Portal) was the only Manila-based publication in the media list.

A Media Briefing was also held, discussing the important dates to remember:

May 22: Bands from 10 countries began submitting their entries.

June 13: Band Registration ended. Over 2,500 entries were submitted.

June 22: Announcement of the Top Ten Semi-Finalists

June 23: Voting

July 7: End of Public Voting

The Pinoys' bet, Pancake 80, submitted a song titled "Time."

Initial reviews cited the group's "new wave" quality.

VJ Utt served as the facilitator.

The 33-year-old host-actor-endorser gave the organizers of the redAMP a thumbs up for "helping the ASEAN bands find their place in the international music scene." 

Malaysian singer and One in a Million judge Syafinaz Selamat is confident that whoever wins the contest will "find a niche" and won't even have to consider shifting the band's genre to pop.

"It doesn't matter whether you're rock or metal or jazz...People will look at your attitude towards making a good music," she says.

Air Asia's Ancillary Income Head Rafizah Amran (right) told PEP: "We plan to make redAMP sustainable. Even if the competition is over, we will continue with the development, especially those that we think will have chance to be an  international artist."

Want to help our kababayans get their ticket to international stardom?

Support Pancake 80 by logging on to www.AirAsiaRedTix.com  (CLICK HERE), where one can vote once every 24 hours; or visiting redAMP's Facebook (CLICK HERE), which can accept a vote from one account every 30 minutes; or keying in RA 06 and sending it to 09165955600.

In a brief chat, Utt said he's very familiar with Manila because he had the chance to work with former MTV Asia VJs Donita Rose and KC Concepcion.

Likewise, Syafinaz related her visit to Cebu, where she attended an event for a direct-selling brand.